Things By Category

Сleaning Сompany – Master Cleaning Now will tell about simple actions that make life better.

Today we will talk about storing things by categories (and not by zones, as many are used to) – what are the advantages and how to organize it.

What are the advantages of storage by category?

There are several advantages in storing things by category: you always know that certain items lie in a particular place – first, they are easy to find, and second, you definitely do not buy duplicates. On the contrary, if you store things in zones (that is, where they may be needed), it is likely that things will just be distributed evenly throughout the house.

For example, soap can be found in the bathroom, in the kitchen and behind the door in the toilet. Medicines are spread out in the kitchen, in the living room and (or) in the rooms of family members. As a result, when storing by zones, the same things accumulate in different places, you do not see the total volume, you do not know what items you already have. In addition, there is a feeling of fragmentation, lack of focus, which, in turn, affects the psychological state.

Another bonus of storing items by category is that when you bring purchases home and disassemble them, it is much easier for you to understand what to do with this thing, where to identify it. If things lie in zones, then there are more chances that you shove everything in different corners – and this leads to confusion.

How to sort things by category?

BY TYPE. Categories in this case may be as follows: outerwear, T-shirts, bed linen, tableware, cosmetics for care and so on. For example, electrics are chargers, adapters, wires, laptops and phones, other gadgets and the like.

ON THE FUNCTIONAL. Some people, for example, have a clear separation between home clothes and an outlet or a set of dishes, which is used daily (if a person lives alone), and a service for a large company. The same with bed linen: there is a daily set, and there is a guest, which is rarely available.

The feature categorization chip is that things should not intersect using usage: if you have clothes that are parallel to both home and holiday clothes, then it will be difficult for you to maintain categorization by this type. But if the cases of use are very different and there are no overlapping things, then categorization by functionality fits best. For example, with guest bedding, you can also store disposable toothbrushes, sleep masks, towels at the same time — that is, it will not be a shelf with bedding, but the shelf is “only for guests

What if there are too many things?

If there are a lot of things and you cannot cover all the items from this category, then the category should be deepened, enter subcategories. If, for example, you encounter a situation where you have a clear, understandable place (drawer, folder, paper tray) for documents, but you suddenly notice that there are too many papers and a specific medical certificate you are hard to find, then you should select subcategories. For example, a folder with medical documents, a box with working contracts, a tray for bank accounts and documents.

Are there any exceptions?

If you, for example, have a temptation to divide all clothes into the one that you wear constantly and rarely, and rarely remove somewhere – this is not categorization, this is an attempt, without throwing things away, to simplify your life. In this case, it is better to conduct an audit.

There are cases when categorization by type does not work categorically. Take, for example, scissors. It is terribly inconvenient to store all the scissors, for example, in stationery: they are needed in the kitchen, on the desktop, and in the workshop, if available as a separate space, and even in the bathroom.